Mark McCluskey

Mark McCluskey (1892-January 1946) was a corrupt NYPD captain who was in the pockets of the Tattaglia crime family and narcotics trafficker Virgil Sollozzo. The double murder of Sollozzo and McCluskey by Michael Corleone in January 1946 sparked the Five Families War.

Biography
Mark McCluskey was born in New York City, New York in 1892, the son of an Irish immigrant cop. His father took his son on walks around the precinct as he collected gifts of cash from shopkeepers under his protection, motivating the younger McCluskey to join the NYPD. He served 20 years on the force, but he turned from an honest and rough cop into a corrupt cop who took bribes to support his four sons. McCluskey befriended Bruno Tattaglia, who went to school with one of McCluskey's sons, and he was paid to clean up Tattaglia crime family members' records, and was also given free trips to the Luna Bar in Midtown. This friendship led to McCluskey meeting Virgil Sollozzo, and he became the drug trafficker's bodyguard, claiming that Sollozzo was an informant.

Sollozzo's bodyguard
In December 1945, Captain McCluskey had his policemen remove Don Vito Corleone's guards from the Don's hospital room in order to facilitate a Tattaglia hit on the Don, but Aldo Trapani killed several of the assassins as Michael Corleone moved his father to another room. Later, McCluskey arrived and attempted to have Corleone arrested, and he punched him in the nose (breaking it) after Corleone questioned how much Sollozzo was paying him. Corleone lawyer Tom Hagen arrived and convinced McCluskey to let Michael Corleone go, and McCluskey backed down and left.

Death
The Corleones knew that Sollozzo was untouchable so long as McCluskey was by his side, and they were wary of the Mafia rule that policemen could not be harmed. However, Michael Corleone volunteered to kill both of them, and told Hagen that they could tell the newspapers about McCluskey's corruption; his death would be justified. Michael would then have to go into exile in Sicily until things calmed down back home.

Corleone met with Sollozzo and McCluskey at the Louis Restaurant in Midtown Manhattan to discuss business, with McCluskey apologizing to Corleone for his cranky behavior. At dinner, Corleone asked to be excused so that he could use the restroom, and McCluskey calmed Sollozzo by telling him that he had already frisked Michael. However, Corleone retrieved a pistol that had been hidden behind a toilet by Peter Clemenza's associate Aldo Trapani, and he returned to the table, where he shot Sollozzo in the head. He then shot McCluskey once in the neck and once in the forehead, killing them both. The police would initially hunt for the "cop killer", but revelations about McCluskey's corruption caused the investigation to subside.